Thursday 18 November 2010 19.05 EST
First published on Thursday 18 November 2010 19.05 EST

The scale of the country's reliance on private companies to power the state is revealed today as the government takes the historic step of publishing its accounts for the first time.

The disclosure of the majority of payments made by government departments over the first five months after the election reveals Whitehall's struggle to wean itself off high-cost contracts – and a burgeoning industry emerging around the coalition's reforms.

It also reveals the lingering waste in the government machine, with civil servants sent on chocolate-themed awaydays, training for civil servants in how to have "difficult conversations", and nightclubs rented for official meetings. Downing Street spent £55,000 renovating David Cameron's offices after his election.

The data includes 194,000 individual payments made by every government department between May and September this year. It shows everything from the student loan bill to the Whitehall phone bill, giving an extraordinary insight into the government's books. Eton was paid £40,000 of taxpayers' money to work with state schools, £1.17m went on in-cell TV for prisoners who have earned the privilege, and £6.6m on free coal for ex-miners.

Publication of spending data was at the heart of the coalition's promise to make government more transparent but today is the first time it has released figures relating to its own period in government. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, said publication would force civil servants to re-evaluate their spending and encourage companies to undercut their rivals to reduce costs further.

But as the files were made available to journalists last night the government was feeling the first glimpse of the reality of its transparency project, with some officials unable to explain items of spending, the Ministry of Defence forced to redact entries to protect national security, and a furious spat between the government and Labour over who was to blame for individual items of spending.

"A lot of this stuff we inherited and had to continue," a Downing Street source said. "The government needs to start taking responsibility for itself," a senior Labour source responded.

Maude, writing for the Guardian's Comment is Free, says: "When you are forced to account for the money you spend, you spend it more wisely. This government should be held to account for every penny it spends and I believe that with the weight of public interest on their shoulders, greater transparency will drive departments to make the right decisions about how they spend taxpayer's money."

Key revelations from the spending data released include:

• The scale of the payments to the biggest private suppliers dwarfs the budgets for some government departments. Capita, the single largest outsourcing firm working for the government, received £3.3bn over the period – including the processing and payment of teachers' pensions – more than the Department of Energy and Climate Change receives in a year.

• £1.43bn was spent on PFI projects for schools and £1.25bn on other PFI deals.

• The challenge facing the government as it attempts to renegotiate its colossal IT bill is laid bare. It paid £271m to one firm alone, Aspire, which oversees the IT system for Revenue & Customs.

• A Guardian analysis of some trends in the data reveals the unintended consequences of some of its money-saving devices. The bill for agency staff has soared by 65% since a recruitment freeze for all but the most crucial posts was ordered across Whitehall. Unions said this threatened to de-skill Whitehall and that costly agency fees could undermine efforts to save money.

• The advertising and consultancy bill has fallen steeply since the government froze all but the most essential new contracts. The bill for consultancy – people brought in from the private sector to advise on individual projects and policy – was £140m over the period but the monthly costs reduced by a third between June and September. The Cabinet Office, the driver of the efficiency regime, saw its bills for advertising and consultancy increase, with some extra consultancy costs to help it achieve efficiencies. It spent £923,557 on consultancy in June but by September that cost was £3,414,805. A spokesperson said much of the advertising bill was down to commitments made by the last government.

• The Department for Education made a number of payments to for-profit companies providing support and consultancy to the new academy and free schools being promoted by the coalition.

According to figures released today as an act of political transparency, DLA Piper, where Miriam González Durántez is a senior partner, was paid £87,875 during first five months of coalition government

Michael White: The government's accounts are constantly being revised – now they will have to be revised in the shop window, with several million anoraks peering over shoulders and jabbering at the screen 'No, that's wrong'